EU extends duties on stainless steel pipes from China

The European Union has extended its anti-dumping duties, ranging from 48.3 percent to 71.9 percent, on seamless pipes and tubes of stainless steel from China for further five years, the EU official journal said.

In the official journal, the European Commission said that some Chinese steelmakers had significant spare capacity and this could lead to large-scale imports at dumped prices if the measures were lifted.

Though China-EU relations have been progressing steadily, the EU's recent moves could hamper bilateral relations, Wei Jianguo, a former vice-minister of commerce, said on Wednesday.

Some leaders of European countries are still clinging to the Cold War mentality, and had made an "error of judgment" on China, said Wei, who is also the vice-president of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, a think tank.

As unilateralism and protectionism led by the United States rise, China and the EU should shoulder the responsibility together to safeguard multilateral trade rules and rebuild the system of international economic governance, Wei said.

First set in 2011, the EU's duties on China's seamless stainless steel pipes and tubes expired in 2016.

After that, a review began while the duties remained in place during the review period.

The European Commission has 53 measures in place on steel and iron products, including 27 on products originating in China.

China does not have export subsidies, Zhang Ming, head of the Chinese Mission to the European Union, said in an article on Politico.com in January.

Rather, in the past decade, China has restricted steel exports by levying tariffs, Zhang said. It was not until January that the country abolished export duties on certain steel products.

In 2018, China will expand mutually beneficial cooperation across the board with the EU, and add more strategic and global dimensions to China-EU relations, Zhang was quoted as saying by State media Xinhua News Agency earlier.

Gao Feng, a spokesman with the Ministry of Commerce, said at a recent news conference that the country opposed the abuse of trade measures such as anti-dumping duties.

China has been sharpening its efforts to optimize the structure of steel production. The country plans to cut ineffective steel capacity of about 30 million metric tons this year, according to the Government Work Report available to media on Monday. In the past five years, more than 170 million tons of steel capacity have been slashed according to the report.